OT: RIP John Glenn

[JustinD]

Glenn was the definition of hero and man we may see very little of in the future.

He was a man that had the stones to not agree with every aspect of his party and have real opinions. Something rarer than platinum in this day and time on all sides.

My favorite Glenn story was in 1974 when he first ran for office against the incumbent Howard Metzenbaum. At the time Glenn's military record offered an opportunity to exploit the anti-war movement. Metzenbaum kept referring to him as "Col. Glenn" and told him he had "never met a payroll". Glenn took this seriously and felt he was being told his military service and NASA time did not qualify as a having ever held a job.

He replied with this impressive rebuttal -

"I spent 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I lived through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on twelve different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, it was my life that was on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank.

I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day, to a Veterans Hospital and look those men, with their mangled bodies, in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.

You go with me to the space program, and go as I have gone to the widows and orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their Dad didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day coming up and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job.

I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men – some men - who held a job. And they required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I have held a job, Howard."